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Native plants recorded in your state and county

Native plants · Iowa

Native plants of Polk County

71 plant species are recorded as native to Iowa in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Polk County by USDA PLANTS. 40 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness. 2 more species are listed as both native and introduced and kept in a separate section.

County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP

Polk County, Iowa

Native species
71 Typical Iowa county: 44 (median of 99 counties)
Garden-ready natives
40 Typical Iowa county: 24
Share by type (all 71 native species)
Percent of the 71 native species in each growth type
Wildflower (forb) 21% (15)
Grass or grass-like 73% (52)
Fern 6% (4)

Grasses and grass-like plants make up the largest share of the native list (73%), followed by wildflowers (21%).

Recorded native ranges can include long-established populations that spread from gardens; check your state’s native plant society list for local guidance. How native status is decided.

ZIP codes mainly in this county fall in USDA hardiness zone 5b (2023 map).

The native plant list

Cold hardiness is estimated from each plant’s PLANTS minimum temperature. How we estimate it.

Garden-ready natives 40

Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.

Garden-ready native plants of Polk County, Iowa
PlantType HeightLight Water useHardy to
American bellflower Campanulastrum americanum Wildflower (forb) 6 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 12b
big bluestem Andropogon gerardii Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Low Zone 2b
bluejoint Calamagrostis canadensis Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Sun Medium Zone 4a
Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3a
Carolina foxtail Alopecurus carolinianus Grass or grass-like 1.7 ft Sun Low Zone 3a
devil's beggartick Bidens frondosa Wildflower (forb) 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 12a
fall panicgrass Panicum dichotomiflorum Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun High Zone 3a
field horsetail Equisetum arvense Fern 11 in Sun–part shade High Zone 3a
fowl bluegrass Poa palustris Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3b
fowl mannagrass Glyceria striata Grass or grass-like 5.7 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
green needlegrass Nassella viridula Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
hairy grama Bouteloua hirsuta Grass or grass-like 6 in Sun Low Zone 3b
Indiangrass Sorghastrum nutans Grass or grass-like 6 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
little bluestem Schizachyrium scoparium Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
Malabar sprangletop Leptochloa fusca Grass or grass-like 3.3 ft Sun High Zone 3a
marsh muhly Muhlenbergia racemosa Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
Mexican muhly Muhlenbergia mexicana Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 4a
nimblewill Muhlenbergia schreberi Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
nodding fescue Festuca subverticillata Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
northern maidenhair Adiantum pedatum Fern 1.3 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
plains muhly Muhlenbergia cuspidata Grass or grass-like 1.4 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
porcupinegrass Hesperostipa spartea Grass or grass-like 4 ft Sun Medium Zone 3b
prairie cordgrass Spartina pectinata Grass or grass-like 8 ft Sun High Zone 3b
prairie dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis Grass or grass-like 2.3 ft Sun–part shade Low Zone 3b
prairie wedgescale Sphenopholis obtusata Grass or grass-like 3.2 ft Sun–part shade Medium Zone 3a
rattlesnake fern Botrychium virginianum Fern 1.4 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
reed canarygrass Phalaris arundinacea Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun High Zone 3b
rice cutgrass Leersia oryzoides Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Sun High Zone 4a
sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptandrus Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula Grass or grass-like 3 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
smooth horsetail Equisetum laevigatum Fern 5 ft Sun Low Zone 3b
sweet woodreed Cinna arundinacea Grass or grass-like 4.9 ft Shade-tolerant Low Zone 4a
switchgrass Panicum virgatum Grass or grass-like 5 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
teal lovegrass Eragrostis hypnoides Grass or grass-like 4 in Sun High Zone 3b
threelobe beggarticks Bidens tripartita Wildflower (forb) 3.5 ft Sun–part shade High Zone 12a
upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera Wildflower (forb) 3.1 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
Virginia wildrye Elymus virginicus Grass or grass-like 2.5 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 4b
western wheatgrass Pascopyrum smithii Grass or grass-like 2 ft Sun Medium Zone 3a
wirestem muhly Muhlenbergia frondosa Grass or grass-like 2 ft Shade-tolerant Medium Zone 3b
woodland bluegrass Poa sylvestris Grass or grass-like 3 ft Shade-tolerant High Zone 4a

Other native species recorded here 31

PLANTS has no growing records for these, so light, moisture, height and zone filters cannot include them. Many are wild species seldom sold by nurseries.

  • Baldwin's ironweed Vernonia baldwinii
  • big devils beggartick Bidens vulgata
  • blackseed ricegrass Patis racemosa
  • Clayton's sweetroot Osmorhiza claytonii
  • curlytop knotweed Polygonum lapathifolium
  • eastern bottlebrush grass Elymus hystrix
  • fall witchgrass Digitaria cognata
  • fire on the mountain Euphorbia cyathophora
  • foxtail barley Hordeum jubatum
  • golden zizia Zizia aurea
  • hairy wildrye Elymus villosus
  • Heller's rosette grass Dichanthelium oligosanthes
  • Illinois ticktrefoil Desmodium illinoense
  • Leiberg's panicum Dichanthelium leibergii
  • mat sandbur Cenchrus longispinus
  • nodding muhly Muhlenbergia bushii
  • poverty dropseed Sporobolus vaginiflorus
  • prairie threeawn Aristida oligantha
  • puffsheath dropseed Sporobolus neglectus
  • rough barnyardgrass Echinochloa muricata
  • shortbeak sedge Carex brevior
  • sixweeks fescue Vulpia octoflora
  • smooth forked nailwort Paronychia canadensis
  • thin paspalum Paspalum setaceum
  • threeflower melicgrass Melica nitens
  • tufted lovegrass Eragrostis pectinacea
  • tumble windmill grass Chloris verticillata
  • western rockjasmine Androsace occidentalis
  • western silver aster Symphyotrichum sericeum
  • witchgrass Panicum capillare
  • yellow pimpernel Taenidia integerrima
Also listed as native and introduced here 2

PLANTS labels these species both native and introduced in this state: some forms are native and others were brought in from elsewhere. Most gardeners should choose plants from the main list.

Compared with Iowa

The typical county is the median of the 99 Iowa counties with PLANTS county records; the statewide figure counts every species native anywhere in the state. More species is not better or worse: counties differ in size, habitat and how thoroughly they have been surveyed.

Native species counts, Polk County and Iowa
MeasurePolk CountyTypical countyStatewide
Native species 71 44 1,374
Garden-ready natives 40 24 496
Tree 0 — 110
Shrub 0 — 72
Wildflower (forb) 15 — 779
Grass or grass-like 52 — 298
Vine 0 — 55
Fern 4 — 60

Neighboring counties

Counties that share a ZIP code with Polk County.

Look up another ZIP

Matches your ZIP to the county it mostly lies in, then lists the plants recorded as native to your state (Kew’s World Checklist and USDA PLANTS) and recorded in that county by USDA PLANTS.

Source & data date

Source
USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
Citation
USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
Data date
Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
Zones
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) ZIP table: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed November 3, 2026. Plant zones on this site are our estimate, not the official map.
Scope
Polk County (county FIPS 19153), Iowa. 71 native species from PLANTS county distribution records; garden-ready = species with a PLANTS characteristics record.
Method
A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources

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